About this Video

• Video Title: Bias in Healthcare
• Channel: Outsmarting Implicit Bias
• Speakers: Narrator, Monica K. Goyal, M.D., Mahzarin Banaji
• Duration: 00:04:49

Introduction

This video explores implicit bias in healthcare, focusing on how racial bias affects pain perception and treatment. It uses psychological experiments to demonstrate how individuals perceive pain differently based on race and suggests technological solutions to mitigate this bias.

Key Takeaways

• Implicit bias in pain perception: Studies show that people, including medical professionals, implicitly perceive Black individuals as experiencing less pain than White individuals, even for the same injury.
• Disparities in pain medication: Research indicates Black Americans are less likely to receive pain medication compared to White Americans, despite reporting similar pain levels, across various settings and types of pain. This disparity extends to children, with Black children having significantly lower odds of receiving opioid medication for appendicitis.
• Impact on treatment: Implicit bias not only affects pain perception but also influences treatment decisions, with biased medical professionals more likely to make inaccurate recommendations for Black patients.
• The 67% human threshold: Psychological research suggests a threshold where faces are perceived as "alive" and capable of feeling pain. This threshold is higher for outgroup members (those from different racial or ethnic groups).
• Technological solutions: The video proposes a technological intervention for hospitals: software that displays comparative data on pain medication prescriptions for different racial groups, prompting doctors to consciously consider potential bias in their own prescribing practices.

Based solely on the provided transcript, several problems can arise from making assumptions in a clinical environment:

1. Inaccurate pain assessment and treatment: Assuming a patient's pain level based on race or other demographic factors can lead to under- or over-treatment of pain, causing unnecessary suffering or risks associated with over-medication. The video specifically highlights this problem regarding the under-treatment of pain in Black patients.

2. Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment: Assumptions can lead to overlooking relevant symptoms or misinterpreting patient information, potentially resulting in delayed or incorrect diagnoses and inappropriate treatment.

3. Erosion of trust between patient and clinician: If patients feel their concerns are dismissed due to assumptions made by clinicians, it can damage the patient-clinician relationship and hinder effective communication crucial for good healthcare.

4. Health inequities and disparities: Assumptions based on race, ethnicity, or other demographic factors perpetuate health inequities by leading to biased care and unequal access to adequate treatment.

5. Legal and ethical consequences: Inaccurate assumptions and subsequent mistreatment could have serious legal and ethical ramifications for healthcare providers and institutions.